What's in a name?

[Richard Hearn]

How do you name an artwork and does it matter? A request for feedback from members of U Talk Art.

What's in a name?
Would a rose by the name 'Untitled #4' smell as sweet? What if it was instead called: 'the moment memory and hope collided and angels soared...'
Would that help?

How do artists choose their titles? From Rothko's many untitled paintings to Duchamp's 'Bride stripped bare by her bachelors, even' there are many and varied approaches to naming your artwork.

As research for a commissioned piece, I'd love to hear opinions from all sections of the art world. If you're an artist, is the title in place before your brush has touched the canvas? Or is it something you decide as you create your exhibition label/rename a JPEG?

Gallery owners - what sells? Just as Dulux must employ someone who says dark yellow is in fact Late Winter Sunshine, or whatever, does an evocative, poetic title, help the work sell? Or is it merely to differentiate one landscape from another?

Perhaps most importantly - if you're a buyer, what made you buy? Did the title influence you? Was it irrelevant? Does it signify the mood, give information, help with meaning?

Any feedback would be great - let me know your own take on the matter, and also the angle you're coming from - artist/gallery owner/buyer etc.......please leave a comment

[Richard]

An interesting question Richard, i've always been of the opinion that you either feel the need to name a piece of work or you don't, I certainly don't agree with naming something just for the sake of it. The subject matter obviously plays a part, if you are painting a still life or a portrait for example, then that can provide it's own title, however if your work is more ambiguous then a title can be harder to come across. The problem with giving abstract work a title is that it can lead the viewer in a direction that they perhaps would not have taken without the title, one of the things I love about abstract art is that it allows the viewer to use their imagination, you can have a hundred people all looking at the same painting, all of them seeing something quite different, a title can possibly detract from this.

[markc]

A couple of thoughts
Copyright is something that plays a bigger part now than it ever did for artists. eg. using stills of famous people may infringe copyright as well as using famous logos in a painting. Therefore using a more generic name will assist in keeping the painting away from corporate lawyers trawling the internet. eg. calling something "Focused" instead of "Kevin Peterson in helmet"
I dont paint celebrities myself but think that it is a shame things are going this way. What would Andy Warhol say.
I tend to sell landscapes that are specific to an area not generically. ie. I will name something with 2 people on a beach, "beach scene at swansea" (not very imaginative I know) as opposed to something like "young love" My market want the painting to be specific.

Although I have painted abstracts and hang them in my own house I dont name them and dont sell them.

[prosaic]

I think MarkC is right - but there is another good reason in this HiTech age to name your work in ways that describe them - it makes them easier to be found by search engines! In the case of photos this is fairly standard - if you want your picture of Pat the Cat to sell as a print - you tag it and name it clearly, describing it as "Pat the Cat, stuck in the Bath" but when it comes to paintings we rarely think to be so specific. I kknow that I am my own worst enemy for this as I name my pictures things like "Forgotten" which doesn't tell you anything about the painting at all... In fact, although it describes it perfectly to me, it defies most people who see it - to see how it got its name!!

So this is a really good question and I look forward to seeing how other artists work.

Gaile

PS - It is called forgotten because there is a wedding ring tied to the bucket - to stop it from being lost in the beach - now the tide has come in - the bucket and the ring have been left behind... forgotten... which I vaguely remember started as an allegory for how some people only remember their wedding vows while they are having fun - but when the tide turns they walk away!